#PalestinePledges for #GE16: Let’s make Palestine an election issue

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign is asking our members and supporters to make Justice for Palestine an issue in the 2016 Irish General Election.

To make it easier for people, we have produced a short handout with three important questions to ask canvassers on the doorsteps, and have initiated a campaign asking the candidates to take the #PalestinePledges in support of the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom, justice and equality.

The handout contains questions and important information related to a) the Irish arms trade with Israel, b) the EuroMed Agreement between the EU and Israel, and c) the call for a total ban on products from illegal Israeli settlements. We also urge you to ask candidates to take the #PalestinePledges to help secure justice for the Palestinian people (more details below).

Download the question sheet

We ask you to keep it handy for when candidates come looking for your vote, and make sure they know that the Irish government’s attitude toward Palestine is an important issue for voters in Ireland!

The #PalestinePledges

On 9th February the IPSC officially launched a campaign calling on candidates in the General Election to pledge to support justice for Palestine. In a call sent to the hundreds of candidates in forty constituencies – which you can read online here – we have asked aspiring TDs to take two pledges to support concrete actions to help secure freedom, justice and equality for the Palestinian people if elected to Dáil Éireann.

The campaign is asking candidates to publicly commit to two promises which they are calling the #PalestinePledges – background information on each is available here. Responses will be published on this page so that all voters concerned with Palestine can with have an informed opinion about where candidates stand on the issue of justice for the Palestinian people. The asks are as follows:

1 – The Arms Trade Pledge: “I believe that no one should profit from the deaths and occupation of Palestinians, and if elected to Dáil Éireann I pledge to actively work to end the bilateral arms trade between Ireland and Israel.”

2 – The EuroMed Pledge:“If elected to Dáil Éireann I pledge to actively work to suspend Israel from the EU-Israel Association Agreement (EuroMed), due to its failure to abide by the Human Rights clause in Article 2”

Who has taken the #PalestinePledges?

Select your constituency to see who has made the #PalestinePledges (and please feel free to contact those who haven’t to ask them to do so)

Notes on current endorsements:Sinn Fein, Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit, The Workers’ Party, the Communist Party of Ireland and numerous independent candidates have all endorsed both pledges.

The Green Party has stated in an email to us that it “supports ending arms trading, both government procurement and dual use exporting, with all countries with questionable human rights records including but not limited to Israel,” but have made no mention of the EuroMed agreement.

The Labour Party manifesto sent to us states that: “Building on the symbolic support already approved by Dáil Éireann, we will ensure that the next government formally recognises the state of Palestine,” but makes no mention of either the arms trade or the EuroMed agreement.

We have received no official response from the Fine Gael, Fianna Fail or Renua parties, and the Social Democrats do not have commonly agreed policy position on Palestine-Israel.